inner directed by elese coit

8/12/2019 Inner Directed by Elese Coit

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Inner DirectedTen keys to ne tune your gut instincts

ELESE COIT

Elese Coit 2012

All rights reserved


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ISBN 9781481237895

Category:Management and LeadershipBISAC: Business & Economics / Decision-Making &Problem Solving

Part of the seriesINSIDE OUT LEADERSHIP AND LIVING


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Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there and be guided by the truth as one sees it.

Mahatma Gandhi


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Table of Contents


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Title Page ........................................ ............................. i

In Recognition ........................................... .............. iii

Table of Contents .................................. ....................... v

Forward by The Author ........................................ ................. vi

Introduction ............................................... .......... 8

Why Care? ......................................... ................ 9

What Is Inner Direction? ........................................... .. 10

Reflection: My Decision Making Style ........................ 11

Actively Recognizing Inner Direction ......................... 12

Reflection: How Aware of Inner Direction Am I? ............. 13

To Each Their Own ........................................... ....... 14

The Ten Keys Intro ............................................ ..... 16, 17

1. Rightness ..................................................... 18

2. Understanding .................................................... 19

3. Acceptance ..................................................... 20

4. Release ..................................................... 21

5. Alignment ..................................................... 22

6. Solidity .................................................... 23

7. Privacy ............................................ ......... 24

8. Constancy ....................................... .............. 25

9. Silence .......................................... ........... 26

10. Knowingness ............................................... ...... 27

Super-Simple Summary ............................................ .. 28, 29

Common Questions ................................................ ..... 30

Why We Dont Listen ........................................... ... 32

Reflection: What Are We Listening To ................................. 33

Some Misunderstandings ..................................... 34

Reflection: Thought-Feeling Connection ............................ 35

Two Assumptions About Thought .................... 36

Reflection: Where Does Thinking Come From? ...................... 37

The Most Common Question ............................... 39

The Unmistakable Moment of Yes ......................... 40

Reflection: Whos Talking and Whos Listening? .................. 41

Reflection: I Recognize My Inner Direction By .................... 43

Links to Photographic Contributors ........................... 46

About The Author ........................................... ......... 48

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Forward by the Author


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In the course of training, coaching and managing people asthey make big decisions for themselves Ive been asked manytimes: How do I know when I have the right answer?

It truly has surprised me to notice just how many people do

not have an inner sense of what is right for them. I thought it was just me.

I have to admit that I spent much of my life struggling withlife decisions, consulting logic and other peoples opinions. Iended up confused and frankly, found it very difficult to beable to tell when my own gut feel was leading me in the rightdirection. I developed a mistrust in myself. I lost faith in myown ability to guide my life.

It took me many years to realize that I had lost the

single most essential tool Id ever been given.

Common sense.

To use Inner Directedness is nothing more than simply usingpersonal inner reference points as information about what isgood for you and what is not.

You may already be expert at this. Certainly we all know howto do this but, like me, you may have let yourself get trainedaway from using it very often.

This is a particularly important area of development for those who lead and manage other people. I have noticed that out-standing leaders are inner-aligned, finely attuned to internal

direction. This sends a signal to others who sense theiraliveness, trustworthiness and ultimately their follow-ability.

Inner Directedness is a key leadership skill.

Theres no downside to using our own good sense. What wedecide to purchase, to do or not do for a living or to give or notgive our attention to, has an impact on the world and peoplearound us. The more out of alignment we are with ourselvesthe more social, familial, political and commercial difficultiesresult.

The way I see it, the more inner directed each person

becomes, the better our world becomes.

This book outlines ten qualities of inner direction that I havenoticed are always present when I am truly listening. Theseare how I know I am on course with myself.

I have shared these with many people in the course of leadingglobal project deliveries, delivering management performancetrainings and coaching clients. They quickly learned the great value of using their own built-in directional system.

What follows are ten very simple ways that may help you rec-ognize and cultivate Inner Directedness for yourself. Youllalso find reflection questions and blank pages for takingnotes. I hope you find these helpful. Although, even withoutany of this, inner direction is available to you right now. It isalready integrated into your personal human firmware.

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I NNER D IRECTION : T HE WHO , WHAT & WHY ....

1. Why care about Inner Direction?

2. What is it?

3. Actively Recognizing it

4. To Each Their Own

Introduction

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Why Care About Inner Direction?

We dont make bad decisions because we dont have

good sense. We make bad decisions because we dont

listen to our good sense.

Great leaders, innovators and peacemakers have one strikingquality in common: they are inner directed. They hear andmarch to a unique drum that beats inside. Gandhis quiet in-ner knowing freed the Indian continent.

Many people struggle to march to their own drum. Under-standably. There is so much conflicting information and somany options to pick from. The menu is getting bigger and thetime to choose seems to be getting shorter.

We cope with a world in hyper-drive by multi-tasking, speed-ing up and cutting corners, all the while ignoring what thisdoes to our lives and people around us. Or we may eat toomuch, sleep too little and ignore whats really important. Wed change this if we heard our sensible selves more clearly.

We have been highly trained at over-riding our inner goodsense. In fact it is not uncommon to be literally unable tohear inner direction and as a result to end up stuck in indeci-sion or facing avoidable situations. Great leaders referencetheir inner senses often and powerfully in order to direct oth-ers with clarity. You can use it as your best personal advisor.

The Inner Directed voice is the part of you that tells you

when you are on course or off course in any particular mo-ment. Some people experience it as a sense or a feeling. And yes, it can be confusing as you learn to tune in and be able totell for sure if its steering you right.

This book is intended to help you make a finer inner distinc-tion between good sense and all the other stuff.

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What is Inner Direction?

Well-tuned inner direction is a very useful compass. In fact, just knowing you have inner direction available to you tends

to free and relax the mind. Better decisions usually follow.

Leaders rely on natural good sense and gut instincts all thetime. They recognize subtle signals that distinguish a valuablepiece of input from an emotional reaction. They learn to tunein and listen carefully to signals that are coming from the in-side while still being engaged in what is happening outside.

Developing a strong inner listening ability helps you discern between different kinds of feelings and conflicting informa-tion. It is common for us to rely on the logic of the mind andto be unfamiliar with the good feeling of inner directedness.So give it time. It may challenge you at first, but the rewardsinclude greater authenticity, grounded authority and self-trust. On this platform other natural and creative abilities canflourish.

Having Inner Direction doesnt mean you will never make anerror of judgement again. It is simply an opportunity to be-come familiar with a faculty youve already got. You can learnto use it wisely or ignore its existence. It is up to you.

Think of it this way: we do not go to school to get intelligenc e; we go there to use intelligence . Inner Direction is the same. Itis something you use, not something you get.

Basic disconnection with our inner world leads to all

kinds of conflicted behaviors. It is not much good havingthis faculty if we recognize what is best for us only after

the fact.

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Reflection

MY DECISION-MAKING STYLE

Think of a decision you feel you need to make. Have you beenlooking for your answer in any or all of these:

Your bank account

People whose opinions matter to you

Predictions of the future

Fears and emotions

Market analysis

Notice what has stopped you from making this decision so far.

Now call to mind a time when you made a decision that really worked for you. Did you consult the above before or after youknew what you would do?

Key Question: If a decision you made using your inner direc-tion turned out to be wrong, would you stop consulting it?

Notes

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Actively Recognizing Inner Direction

To follow Inner Direction you must know it.

Imagine for a moment that you are at a restaurant withfriends. The server hands you the menu. Where do you lookto know what you want to order for lunch? The menu hasmany options. How will you decide?

Ordering off a menu is a good example of how people alreadyuse Inner Direction naturally. Everyone has some way of be-ing able to tell what they are really hungry for (without askingeveryone at the table).

This natural knowing can be used everywhere in life. Youmight prefer to refer to it as gut feeling, instinct or intuition.Can you think of a time when you ignored a gut feeling? Whathappened?

Getting to know inner direction means paying attention in ways you may not have before. Dont assume you need aquiet mind for this. Inner Direction can find you at anytime. As you become friends you will recognize its presence

earlier and more often. Recognizing its absence is equally valuable, as that will alert to the fact you are making a deci-sion before you are really ready to. Either way, you win.

So, how available is your gut feel when you most need it?

The reason why actively recognizing and using inner

direction helps us is that the more you know what it feels like the more youll find it is right there when youneed it.

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Reflection

HOW AWARE AM I OF INNER DIRECTION?

Survey your world and see if you notice a difference between

some areas where you use gut instincts and others where youtend not to. How often do you find yourself saying, I knew Ishould have... When was the last time that happened?

Remember and write down a time when you heard your innerdirection absolutely clearly. Were you following it despite theresistance or advice of others?

Take a moment to reflect quietly ...

When I know Im truly on track how does that feel to me?

Are there any patterns or qualities that are my own clear signsof inner direction?

How do I know when it isnt there?

Key Question: The last time I heard my own gut, or goodcommon sense, how did I know I had heard it?

Notes

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To Each Their Own Inner Direction

Humans have a shared set of human capacities, but we are allindividual thinkers. Although we all have the ability to hear

our inner directedness, what we each hear is totally differentand unique. What is best for you is not best for another.

Inner Direction is specific to you and responds appropriatelyto the moment you are facing. Your inner direction cannot behampered by any situation, no matter how difficult, any morethan someone can stop your mind from having a new idea. Your inner response will meet each new situation as it arises.

Just as there are no impediments to hearing, there are no opti-mal conditions for hearing best. Everyone can hear at any-time including in the heat of an argument. You possess thisability; its a matter of you getting to know yourself well.

As many entrepreneurs, leaders and creatives can tell you, theadvantages of recognizing and using your inner guidance areimmense. With all else being equal, gut feel has often guidedsuccessful people to inexplicably choose the better businesspartner, get skeptical about contract terms just in time, or topull out of a deal because it just didnt feel right .

Using personal Inner Directedness does not mean you will ig-nore reality, hard facts and serious options, but it will let youknow whats happening within you as you go. Inner attune-ment is your ally for business, for leadership and for life.

Inner Direction is specific to the person listening,relevant to the moment at hand and on constant refresh.

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Notes


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I NNER D IRECTEDNESS IS RECOGNIZED BY :

1. Rightness

2. Understanding

3. Acceptance

4. Release

5. Alignment

6. Solidity

7. Privacy

8. Constancy

9. Silence

10. Knowingness

The Ten Keys

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Fine Tune Your Inner Direction

Make use of your natural human self-guidance system.

It feels good.

These Ten Keys to recognizing and using your inner directed-ness will help you gain greater awareness of your human self-guidance system, your inbuilt GPS.

People refer to Inner Direction by many different names: in-stinct, wisdom, inner wisdom, inner guidance, the inner voice,common sense, intuition, and gut feel are just some. Thesemay have connotations for you, negative or positive. Try notto get too hung up on terms, which are used here as if synony-mous. Think of this as an exploration that is pointing you tosomething you are going to discover, describe and name.

It is very likely you will read these ten keys and realize you arealready using these or other signposts to gage whether youare on track or off track, centered or uncentered.

The ten keys only describe what it feels like to be tuned in to yourself -- what it can be like, that is, not what it must be like.There is no attempt to tell you how you should feel or to coverthe specific content of your (or anyones) inner direction.

Coming to know ourselves better in this way can lead to muchgreater self-assurance and does bolster our ability to handlethe ups and downs of life. It is like an internal muscle, but one

that gets stronger with a very different kind of exercise.

When human beings are listening and tuning in toinner direction it feels very natural and very good so, by way of contrast, each key has a counter-indicator calleda warning sign. This is the sign of moving away from InnerDirectedness rather than towards it.

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One

Rightness

photo: Jon Ovington


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Two

Understanding

photo: L.N. Batides


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Three

Acceptance

Photo: summerly noon


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Four

Release

Photo: Gary J. Wood


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Five

Alignment

Photo: Kevin Lawver


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Six

Solidity


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Seven

Privacy


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Eight

Constancy


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Nine

Silence


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Knowingness


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Super Simple Summary

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I NNER D IRECTION IS RECOGNIZED BY :

1. Rightness

2. Understanding

3. Acceptance

4. Release

5. Alignment

6. Solidity

7. Privacy

8. Constancy

9. Silence

10. Knowingness

Photo information can be found on page 38.


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And those who were seen dancing were thought to be

insane by those who could not hear the music. Friedrich Nietzsche

Inner Direction is ...

Personal. You cant get inner direction for someone else.

Easy. It steers you with less effort once you get to know it.

Present. You recognize youve had it all along.

A Good Feeling. It does not include fear or stress.

Flexible. It responds to the moment of now.

Helpful. It brings clarity rather than more confusion.

Not complex. Its simply a clear sense of whats best for you.

Inner Direction gives you back your own mind. That canmean you are set apart from the crowd. It may not please oth-ers, but you will find you are standing on solid ground andfeeling much more like the person you know you truly are.

Becoming attuned to yourself is the best way to cultivate bothstrength and compassion. You may find that honest and neces-sary conversations start taking place. This is why being innerdirected is essential for leaders and managers. You may find

that the leaders you most want to emulate are already usinginner direction, although they may not articulate it this way.

What else have you noticed thats helpful? What questionsremain? There are more reflection exercises coming up plusadditional blank pages for notes at the back of the book.

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SOME THINGS THAT COME UP

1. Why We Dont Listen to Inner Direction

2. Some Misunderstandings

3. Two Assumptions About Thoughts

4. The Most Common Question

5. The Unmistakable Moment of Yes

Common Questions

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Each human being arrived with everything they need tolive life.

One very common concern about what would happen if everyindividual started listening to and following their own northstar is the notion that businesses, families and the world struc-tures would fall apart and that chaos would result. But is thisreally true? Would following inner direction lead to moregreedy selfishness, or more enlightened self-interest? Is itpossible that the more people connect to themselves, the morethey experience connection to others and the planet?

Aware of interconnectivity, we do consider the impact of ourdecisions on others. In fact, that is often the very reason why we stop ourselves doing what we know to do! Ever noticedhow often following your own path ended up being the rightthing for all? We often look back to see it was for the best.

In addition, advancing and quantum science have radicallyredefined our views of natural systems, system interactionand our perceptions of chaos and control. In quantum physicschaos has ultimate order within it, as a system of cooperativeindividual elements each made of pure potential, expressingperfectly in relation to one another. (Or something like that).

The kind of listening referred to here as Inner Direction isintegral to every human being in the same way that it is inte-

gral for birds to know how to fly and plants to know howto grow. We came wired up this way in our human suits -- allpart of the bigger human system.

From this perspective maybe there is a very good chance that what is built in to the individual is meant to work in favor ofthe collective of individuals -- ultimately speaking.

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Why We Dont Listen To Inner Direction

Apart from just not being that familiar with hearing and usingour own inner direction, there are two very common reasonspeople have for not using it:

fear of the reaction of others

fear of getting it wrong

It is very common to think about the ways we might makemistakes, be disapproved of or rejected. Everyone can relateto these types of thoughts passing through from time to time. As a result, some people are continually fearful and guarded,they may try to manage the reactions of others -- despite thefact the event may not ever happen. The others we fear maynot even be around to chastise us. But they neednt be. The voices of disapproval remain alive in our own minds viathought. Those voices become free radicals scavenging ourgood ideas and sabotaging our natural confidence.

It takes only the thought to immediately experience the emo-tion connected to it, so it is important to get very clear on therole of thought in our lives. In the next section, well explorehow thoughts and feelings are inextricably wired up. Well see why Inner Direction helps us distinguish between trulygrounded inner decision-making processes and reactive ones,such as emotional decision making and snap judgement calls.To make this distinction well review some working principlesabout the nature and functioning of human mental l ife.

The people whose disapproval you fear the most are not

the ones that live in your house, they are the ones that

live in your head.

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Reflection

WHAT AM I LISTENING TO?

Even when people ask for advice, they often dont take it. We

listen as if they will. We assume our answer will help. Have you offered advice only to have it rejected? Did the person endup doing what they had planned to do in the first place? Howdo you interpret that?

Ever had an uncomfortable sensation while trying to followsomeones well-meaning advice? What does that say to you?

If you ask for advice but but tend to end up ignoring what peo-ple tell you to do, why? Reflect on a time when you asked

someone what to do, while in your mind you had an idea of what you secretly hoped they would say. What happened in-side you?

What are you concerned might happen to you if you used your intuition more decisively?

Key Question: If someone you respect and loved very muchadvised you to do something and you didnt think it was

right, how would you know that?

Notes

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Some Misunderstandings

To listen to your own Inner Direction does not mean you willstop caring about people. It does mean you become more lu-cid. Clarity is a form of enlightened self-interest and it maysurprise you to find this draws greater cooperation your way.

If you are a leader you will find that people sense the authen-ticity of your decisions. Even if they are wrong. As you listento yourself you find people listen to you. After all, if we can-not tell what is right for us, how do we expect to lead others?

It may seem that we have no choice about how to act in manysituations. But the truth is that we are choosing what and

whom we are listening to long before we act. You may havenoticed this from the reflection on the previous page. There isnothing wrong with consulting friends, advisors, parents andexperts. To do so with no self-referencing at all, however, canleave us feeling lost, victimized and increasingly helpless.

If self-referencing is confusing it is because we mis-attributehuman feelings. We think feelings come from outside of us.They dont. We feel our thoughts of fear and doubt, insecurity

and rejection just as we feel thoughts of empathy and caring. We have a rich internal world via our own power of thought.

The more you understand this human thinking/feeling connec-tion, the more you will be able to lean on your Inner Directionfor clear and reliable guidance.

You always have choice. But you can think that youdont.

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Reflection

THE THOUGHT-FEELING CONNECTION

Can someone or something actually give you a feeling? If yes,

find an example and examine the mechanism by which thefeeling gets from the person or situation into you .

If feelings do come from things or events outside of us, why dodifferent people have different feelings about the same things?

Most people will say that vacations make them feel good. Ever been on a vacation and NOT felt good? How is that possible? What did that, you or the vacation?

How are you able to conjure feelings of sadness or upset whennothing is happening to you and there is no one else in theroom?

Key Question: How might understanding the thought-feelingconnection be useful to you?

Notes

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Two Assumptions About Thoughts

Human beings are thinking beings.

No two people have the same thoughts about anything. It is very common for two people to share an experience yet have

totally different emotional responses. Each will argue thattheir version of events is true. But how can that be? It cant.

For this reason alone, it is important to pay attention to feel-ings: Feelings track what you are thinking. Feelings tell youabout your quality of thinking -- with 100% accuracy. Even if you are not consciously aware of a thought, you still can gagethe quality of thinking by what occurs in your feeling state.

But that is all feelings can tell you. Feelings (i.e. emotions) arenot telling you anything about the world outside you.

In this way, feelings tell how you are doing in relation to yourinner guidance. (Thus the Warning Signs). A mind risingtoward wisdom and clarity has a different quality compared to when it is going downward toward negativity and concern.

Despite patterns of thinking, beliefs, backgrounds and the out-side world, people have their distinctive thoughts. However,

nothing outside can stop someone from having a new thought.

You may notice that you have had new thinking occur to youtoday. Maybe as you read this book. Since feelings followthoughts, you may well have heard that insight via the feel-ing you had. Insight can be wordless, but always has a feeling.

1. No matter what happens to us, we always feelwhatever we are thinking in the moment.

2. No matter how badly you feel, you cannot lose yourability to have a new thought in any moment.

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Reflection

WHERE DOES FRESH THINKING COME FROM?

Take a moment to relax and recall the last time you had anidea that youd say came out of the blue. A moment of AHA. A sudden realization, or a flash of inspiration when you solveda tough problem, knew what to do next, or what to say.

Where were you? What were you doing?

Did you attribute your new idea or your solution to thosethings? If you had your idea in the shower, did you start tak-ing more showers so that you could get more ideas?

Why do people often tend to resolve a sticky issue or have a breakthrough when they take the problem off their mind?

What happened the last time you tried very, very hard to solvea problem by thinking about it a lot? Did that work well for you?

Key Questions: Where do fresh ideas come from?

Notes

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It doesn't matter how difficult things have become on the out-side, every human is able to see afresh (get a new idea) in anymoment. This means we are all able to hear inner guidance atany time and no one can tamper with that. Not ever. Thisdoesnt mean you will always hear clearly, but it does meanthat you have the capacity to hear and that is undamaged.

Inner Direction is nothing more than a new idea occurring .

Being Inner Directed means understanding that at the heartof the human being, fresh insight is a constant possibility. Nocircumstance can stand between you and inner direction.This is the true meaning of Potential.

The only reason we feel far from our inner guidance is that weare highly conditioned to misinterpret our feelings, in general,as coming from outside of ourselves. Its normal to seek an-swers outside if you identify the problems as being outside.

If we misunderstand how thinking and feeling are connected,it is very easy to misread our inner signals. Weve all done it.

Reflection, particularly quiet reflection or contemplation is a very good way to beef up the discernment muscle. And as your voice of Inner Directedness is strengthened, your ability to act

in relation to it is automatically fortified.

So, if nothing on the outside can prevent fresh new thinking,how can a person improve their ability to recognize and takedirection from it? Do you need a clear mind? Should youmeditate or something?

Because a new idea is a constant possibility and becauseideas occur internally, people can experience sudden

shifts. We can have a change of heart, drop a grudge, orget a solution to a problem -- whether or not anythingchanges on the outside.

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I have never met a person who cannot hear, only a

person who is listening to the wrong thing.

The Most Common Question

Once people realize that they can trust their own good senseto guide them, most people want to know how to hear better .

Listening internally -- compared to seeking outside sourcesand solutions -- is not the way most Westerners were raised.So consider the possibility that there is nothing wrong with your listening skills. The question is rather, what are you pay-ing attention to and do you understand what it means?

If you dont pay attention to recognizable internal signals, youmay be unwittingly relying on acquired beliefs, theories andunfounded fears to guide you. You will be relying on shiftingemotions or trying to resolve them, without the knowledge of what generates your emotional state of mind in the first place.

Going inward doesnt mean youll never make a mistake everagain or that you will hear clearly all the time. But you see im-provement in hearing, especially if you continue reflecting.

Inner wisdom is practical. If you develop strong inner discern-ment you can use it to help sift through information you do

possess as well as to guide you when you do not have enough.It is a shame to have this capacity and waste it. Even as youare weighing up options, doing due diligence or carefully calcu-lating your financial forecasts it can be of great service to you.It signals when youre in clarity of mind and when youre not.

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The Unmistakable Moment of Yes

This moment is really what each of the Ten Keys point to.

It is not always a loud moment. It is worth taking time to get

to know it better, to befriend it, cultivate and most of all, toreally make practical use of it.

To make your inner direction more a part of your life, recog-nize it is already part of your innate skill set. As part of yourDNA, it is already working in you and with you. If you manageor lead others, recognize they have this skill set as well. Once you are using it, you can assist others to discover it.

Inner Direction is already whispering in your ear (and frankly,shouting from the rooftops). It comes in many forms, colors,sizes and shapes -- as many as there are human beings and asoften as needed. There is no limit to new thinking comingthrough you or anyone. Moment to moment to moment.

When we hear it and heed it, it rewards us with a return toauthenticity. We feel alive again.

One thing you may notice as you begin to use Inner Direction

more widely is just how obvious your solutions begin to look.So obvious, in fact, that they seem utterly natural -- as if theyoccur without thinking. Cultivate your recognition of the per-sonal feeling of Yes or variations on it such as Rightness,or Quietness. Develop your own signposts. The Ten Keyscan be just the start.

The more Inner Direction becomes familiar to us, the

more easily we see the difference between personalwisdom guiding us and fear guiding us.

This is how we become master decision-makers, leaders,

managers and parents.

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Reflection

WHOS TALKING AND WHOS LISTENING?

Most of us are used to checking in with how we feel -- mean-ing we take input from our own emotional state. (This is how we can feel like eating when we are physically stuffed.) Whatchanges for you now that you know that your emotional stateis a result of your own thoughts and no other factors?

To tune your inner focus you can ask yourself: "Where am Ichecking in right now?" or Who says so?

It is a big assertion to say all feelings come from thoughtalone. Does that seem true to you? Is there an exception, a

place where it looks like your thoughts have no relation to what you are feeling? Are you sure? Investigate that area.

Notice if you get different answers when you come back to thisquestion at different times. What do you make of that?

Key question: What creates your own state of mind in anygiven moment?

Notes

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As children we used this natural discernment easily and with-out any instruction on how to do it. Our imaginations ran free,our desires were clear: Ice cream. Play time. Dont want thatright now. Hungry. Not hungry. More of that please...

We were in touch with inner direction without ever giving it a

second thought. No one sat us down and taught us about this.It was completely natural to us. And although it still is asadults, we did get trained how not to pay attention to it.

As we shaped into young people and adults we began to over-ride our inner sense in favor of fitting in, pleasing others and ahost of other reasons. We began thinking:

"I can't do THAT."

"Art isn't a viable career.

And so on. Perhaps we put many of our deep desires to sleepand ignored our own best advice at times and yet, new ideasstill keep on flowing. The source of those ideas continues whispering to each of us.

How many of us would have saved ourselves a fair few trou- bles if we had listened when we heard our inner wisdom thefirst time around?

We will listen one day. The day we realize that it is fantastic to be ourselves. And we realize it is what we appreciate in others.

You do not need to be different, more developed, more enlight-ened, more evolved, more skilled or more intelligent to have,to deserve or to hear your Inner Direction. It's in you now.

Are you listening?

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Reflection

I RECOGNIZE MY INNER DIRECTION BY...

Develop discernment through contrast.

Recall an easy decision you made. Take time to find this. Amarriage proposal? The University you chose? Find the un-mistakable feeling of inner Yes! or inner No Way! Get famil-iar with the difference. Tune into the difference often.

Notice when you ignore an inner directed feeling, as opposedto ignoring a passing thought.

Notice the ways your Inner Direction comes to you. Use theTen Keys to strengthen this sense of recognition. Find yourown tell-tale signs by answering the question, How do I knowmy Inner Direction is here? The recognition of it being hereas opposed to not being here is really all you need.

Key Question: How does it change things for you to considerthat everyone, including you, has an un-damageable capac-ity for innate inner direction?

Notes

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Notes

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Artistic Acknowledgements


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Artistic Acknowledgements With heartfelt thanks for generous permission to use their beautiful photographs:

Pg. 9 Jon Ovington Sky High http://www.flickr.com/photos/25969014@N06/3158794117

Pg. 10 L.N. Batides Saturday Safari Carnivore 285b http://www.flickr.com/photos/9105819@N04/635589765

Pg. 11 Summerly Noon Sky Shop http://www.flickr.com/photos/52945389@N00/225009501

Pg. 12 Gary J. Wood , Wet Maple Leaves http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyjwood/276683877/

Pg. 13 Kevin Lawver These Stairs Go All The Way Down http://www.flickr.com/photos/kplawver/2761849145/

Pg. 17 Anonymous

By the Author

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The author, Elese Coit, is CEO of TrueChange Consultants , a businessmanagement consultant firm to companies that recognize the impor-tance of the people factor in sustainable business success.

The firm offers services to businesses all over the globe and can be found on www.managementconsultingbusiness.net

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About the AuthorElese Coit is a business management consultant and human potential expert with a long career leading successful business teams. She has held top posts in Telecommunications, IT, Web and Media FTSE 500 companies interna-tionally including British Telecom and IMG Group. As a program manager, Elese delivered complex, business-

critical change programs across the globe. She headed the Program and Project Management Division for BT Americas before becoming a business consultant and Chief Executive Officer of TrueChange Consultants (for-merly Sustainable Change Consulting Group).

Elese uniquely combines a management results track record with the latest in human capital and talent development. She lives inthe USA and shares her passion and unique business experiences in her books and articles . Her company partners with organiza-tions to help them release peoples full talents into their businesses -- training leaders and teams in the connection between Poten-tial, Performance, and Human State of Mind.

Elese provides one-to-one personal coaching to leaders, executives and coaches when her schedule allows. She teaches advanced

transformative coaching at the internationally renowned Supercoach Academy . She is on the board of the national non-profit or-ganization, the Center For Sustainable Change .

Elese is the author of a book on perspective entitled 101 New Pairs of Glasses which is being used as a teaching tool in training,coaching and educational settings and can be found on Amazon , iBooks and iTunes , and finer bookstores.

Contact TrueChange Consultants for a Seminar, Workshop or State of Mind Assessment

Tel: +1 858 866 8049 (USA Pacific Time)

[email protected]

inner directed by elese coit

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